Pani Stefa and the Orphans : Out of the Shadow of Korczak

At a moment when communists were engineering a New Man, and Zionists a New Jew, a doctor and a teacher devoted themselves to a social experiment: raising a new child. Their orphanage is set amidst the desperate poverty of Jewish Warsaw; often the children are not orphans, but rather children of mothers unable to care for them, making their way out of rat-infested rooms with dirt floors or frozen cellars. In this polyphonic work of literary non-fiction, Magdalena Kicinska shifts the gaze from the legendary Dr. Korczak to the inscrutable Pani Stefa. Artfully – in a style reminiscent of Hanna Krall and Agata Tuszynska – the author pieces together a story of a life: a Polish Jewess who spoke French but not Yiddish; a pedagogue who was as demanding as she was self-sacrificing; a lonely woman who rarely in her life had a moment of privacy. In doing so, Kicinska shows us how it is sometimes the drama of history’s minor characters, which can cast the most penetrating light on their world. Kicinska shifts the gaze from the legendary Dr. Korczak to the inscrutable Pani Stefa. She tells a story of a life: a Polish Jewess who spoke French not Yiddish; a pedagogue as demanding as she was self-sacrificing; a lonely woman who rarely had privacy. Kicinska shows us how history's minor characters can sometimes cast the most penetrating light. Cover Front Matter Title Page Contents Author Acknowledgements Acknowledgements from the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Timeline Selected Bibliography